Oban’s Tesco store introduces unwanted plastic point

Campaigners protesting at plastic food waste are celebrating a ‘small but significant’ victory after a supermarket introduced a collection point in its store.

Call-to-action group Awakening In Argyll last month co-ordinated a series of plastic attacks on Oban’s three supermarkets, encouraging shoppers to dump their unwanted food plastic in trolleys outside before handing it back to the stores.

The action came two days after Tesco’s product boss Jason Tarry pledged the supermarket chain would remove all packaging that is hard to recycle from its business by 2019.

Protester Moira Newiss said campaigners had held a conversation with the fruit and veg manager at the Tesco store on the day of the plastic attack and he said people were already leaving their unwanted plastic with them at the tills. He promised to ask his bosses about providing a bin at the end of the aisles.

This week, a collection point cage was spotted near the tills.

Mairi Stones from Awakening In Argyll said: ‘Tesco has put a cage out for us to leave our packaging. It’s a small but significant result from our unwrapping.’

Marc Headley and Moira Newiss were campaigning outside Tesco to reduce plastic use.